Thursday, May 26, 2016

Lucie Félix's APPLES AND ROBINS

Dear readers and reader’s parents, my name is Lucie Félix. I am the author of Apples and Robins, a book for children published by Chronicle Books, and I was very kindly offered a post on this blog to talk about it. I am French, I live near Paris, in a small village. We don’t have any shops, but we have a view on the Eiffel tower. I work at home.

I grew up in a tiny village, 20 houses hidden in the mountains. My friends, brothers and I spent our time doing nothing but playing freely in the wild : Swimming in the streams and the lakes, building wooden houses up the trees, inventing stories in which we were lost children on an island, hunters making their bows with hazel tree sticks... It was a time of friendship, freedom and strong connection with nature. I mention this because I believe this is why the books I create have so much to do with Playing and Nature.

Apples and Robins plays with shapes and colors, building its own rule to make a story. Creating this book was little bit like playing building blocks. I gave a try to many different tracks before choosing the one that was most solid.

What matters most to me is to make a book that involves the reader directly: the children make the story go from one step to another, by simply turning the pages. They try to guess what the shapes are going to show through the die cut. As they move forward, the images appear and the story unfolds. It is, after all, the most fundamental definition of a book: pages to be turned, to see what the next is like. I love to see their faces smiling with surprise when the ladder pops up! Surprise is essential to me. It means curiosity, and curiosity means enthusiasm for learning.

Close collaboration with Brigitte Morel, publishing editor of Grandes Personnes in Paris, has been crucial throughout. She made me realize how important the rhythm and musicality of the words are. It is also a key factor for understanding and remembering new words. I think the translation, as far as I can tell, is very good. I really like how it sounds in English.
If you are interested you can check my website at www.luciefelix.fr
Thanks!
LucieApples and Robins by Lucie Félix, published by Chronicle BooksCLICK HERE for more information.